Archivos Mensuales: septiembre 2013

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WASHINGTON — Their unity fraying, House Republicans bent but did not blink Monday in their demand for changes to the nation’s health care overhaul as the price for preventing the first partial government shutdown in 17 years.

“We’re at the brink,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., moments after the Senate voted to reject the latest GOP attempt to tie government financing to delays in “Obamacare.”

WASHINGTON — If Congress fails to fund the federal government to avert a shutdown, most investigations into workplace safety and discrimination will cease on Tuesday morning, when the overwhelming majority of Labor Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission employees are pulled off the job.

Of the Labor Department’s 16,304 workers, only 2,954, or 18 percent, would be permitted to work during the shutdown, according to a plan released by the agency on Monday. Of the EEOC’s 2,164 employees, only 107, or a mere 5 percent, would work through the furlough period, the commission said in a press release.

The Occupation Safety and Health Administration, the Labor Department office that performs the crucial function of monitoring workplaces, would have to stop inspections that don’t involve immediate dangers or deaths, the department wrote in the plan. That means the agency’s routine inspections — an already woefully underfunded responsibility — would generally grind to a halt during the shutdown.

WASHINGTON — The House pushed ahead Monday night with yet another bill to fund government that seemed destined to fail, inching the U.S. government closer to a shutdown.

House Speaker John Boehner’s latest proposal to fund the government would chip away at Obamacare by delaying the individual mandate and barring the federal government from contributing to the health insurance of the president, lawmakers and staffers.

It nearly collapsed over a procedural vote after moderate Republicans and far-right members of the GOP both complained about the bill, but Boehner (R-Ohio) was able to keep most of his caucus in line, passing the “rule” to consider the measure 225 to 204. Six Republicans opposed the rule.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co’s possible $11 billion settlement of government mortgage probes has been complicated by a dispute with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp over responsibility for losses at the former Washington Mutual Inc, said people familiar with the matter.

The dispute, between the largest U.S. bank and the FDIC, could leave the federal agency on the hook for billions the bank is expected to pay as part of the settlement and substantially reduce the amount of the penalty JPMorgan actually pays to the government, some analysts said.

JPMorgan is seeking a “global” settlement of federal and state mortgage-related probes that could involve a payment of $7 billion in cash plus $4 billion for consumers, according to other people familiar with negotiations.

UNITED NATIONS — The president of the U.N. Security Council said Monday that many members are pressing to follow up on last week’s resolution to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons with a demand that the government allow immediate access for desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Australian Ambassador and council president Gary Quinlan said a draft Security Council statement calls for delivering access in “the most effective ways, including across conflict lines and, where appropriate, across borders from neighboring countries …” if necessary to bypass meddling from President Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus.

The world’s richest people are no strangers to divorce and child support battles, but an ongoing divorce in China has one element we’re not used to seeing: a 9-year-old suing his dad for child support.

Zhao Bingxian, one of China’s richest businessmen, has been involved in a contentious divorce — and one of the most expensive in Chinese history — from wife Lu Juan since 2010.

According to Want China Times, Zhao, who is worth over 10 billion yuan, or $1.6 billion, has requested a reduction in child support payments, though his estranged wife says that he cut off financial support all together. In response, their 9-year-old son has filed a lawsuit against Zhao in order to seek financial support for himself and his mother.